The contingency of an event in history and fiction. Notes on the historicism of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2023-5-52-62
Abstract
The article analyses special features in the functioning of the category “Event” in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”. Eventivity is considered both at the level of “mental” (related to the personal experiences of the characters) and “historical”: in both cases the narrator uses the concepts of “chance”, “causality” and “necessity”, the meaning of which varies depending on the context and, importantly, are realised in the poetics of the novel narrative. In order to analyze the paradoxical nature of the event in War and Peace, the concept of “contingency” is used to take into account the complex relationship between “freedom” and “necessity” in the structure of the novel.
About the Authors
A. V. Korchinsky
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Anatoly V. Korchinsky, Cand. of Sci. (Philology), associate professor
bld. 6, Miusskaya Square, Moscow, 125047
A. A. Kudalina
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Anna A. Kudalina, master’s degree student
bld. 6, Miusskaya Square, Moscow, 125047
References
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Review
For citations:
Korchinsky A.V., Kudalina A.A. The contingency of an event in history and fiction. Notes on the historicism of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2023;(5):52-62. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2023-5-52-62
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